Abstract
This brief report examined teenagers’ sexuality communication with their parents and extended families. It compared who teens of early parents (those who had children when they were adolescents) and teens of later parents (those who were adults when they had children) talk to about sex. Eighth grade students (N = 1281) in 24 schools completed survey items about their communication about sex. Structural equation modeling was used to predict communication profiles, while adjusting for the nesting of students within schools. After controlling for teens’ age, gender, race/ethnicity, grades, parent/guardian closeness, and social desirability of survey responses, as well as family status and median family income, results showed that teens of early (teen) parents were more likely than teens of later (adult) parents to talk with both parents and extended family about sex and less likely than later parents to talk only with parents. These findings indicate that realities of teen sexuality communication for teens of early parents may extend beyond a parent-teen model to include extended family. Extended family involvement in educational outreach is a potential untapped resource to support sexual health for teens of early parents.
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This manuscript was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under grant number R03 HD073381-01. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Everyone who contributed significantly to this work is listed here. We thank Ineke Ceder for her edits and support.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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This manuscript was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health under grant number R03 HD073381-01. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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Grossman, J.M., Tracy, A.J., Richer, A.M. et al. Comparing Sexuality Communication Among Offspring of Teen Parents and Adult Parents: a Different Role for Extended Family. Sex Res Soc Policy 12, 137–144 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-015-0183-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-015-0183-z